AMD’s new Ryzen 9000 CPUs: 7 issues you have to know earlier than shopping for

After a short delay, AMD’s Ryzen 9000 has hit cabinets—however to everybody’s shock, the primary processors include stunning caveats. Regardless of providing a lot to love, the $279 Ryzen 5 9600X, $359 Ryzen 7 9700X, $499 Ryzen 7 9900X, and $649 Ryzen 9 9950X additionally sport uneven efficiency enhancements.

The explanations for these benchmark outcomes are nuanced, nonetheless. We at PCWorld even delayed the discharge of our deep-dive overview to higher tease out these fine-grain particulars. (You possibly can watch us clarify why on this YouTube video, the place we additionally talk about our preliminary outcomes in-depth.) However if you happen to’re questioning if Group Pink’s newest silicon is price your money and simply need the short model, listed here are the highest 7 issues you need to know. For a a lot deeper dive into efficiency, try our full overview video under.

Massive enhancements in single-core efficiency

The benchmark numbers for single-core efficiency are related throughout the preliminary lineup of Ryzen 9000 processors—and people outcomes put them on the prime. In Cinebench R23, one of many rendering benchmarks we use to place CPUs via their paces, the 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 9600X outdid the 7600X by 13 p.c. Equally, the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 9700X posted an nearly 15 p.c enhance over the 7700X.

Adam Patrick Murray / Will Smith / PCWorld

For his or her half, the 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 9900X and 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 9950X provide an nearly 12 p.c uplift over their Ryzen 7000 predecessors. General, these positive aspects are strong enhancements—and provides AMD a slim edge over Intel.

In opposition to the Core i7-14700K, the 9700X affords a 4.7 p.c increase in efficiency, and is neck-and-neck with the extra highly effective Core i9-14900K. In the meantime, the 9600X pulls forward of the Core i5-14600K by just a little over 8 p.c, which is a pleasant win for customers aware of their budgets. The 9900X and 9950X mainly maintain even with the Core i9-14900K—a step up in comparison with Ryzen 7000’s drawback in opposition to Intel’s 14th-gen chips.

However lackluster positive aspects in multi-core efficiency

Nonetheless, Ryzen 9000 loses some shine while you take a look at its multi-core efficiency. Benchmark outcomes will be notably affected by motherboard settings—and the best way many reviewers check (together with PCWorld) doesn’t present the silicon’s full vary.

Throughout our preliminary spherical of testing, the 9700X gave basically the identical efficiency because the 7700X in Cinebench R23’s multithreaded check—the skinny 1.48 p.c doesn’t exceed a traditional testing margin of error (often between 2 to three p.c).

^{For Cinebench and Blender, longer bars point out higher efficiency. For Handbrake (which evaluates pace of check completion), shorter bars are higher.}

The end result was higher for the 9600X, with a roughly 7 p.c enhance in Cinebench in comparison with the 7600X, however that uplift is modest in comparison with earlier generational jumps. Usually, 15 to twenty p.c begins to push the envelope (as seen in single-core efficiency).

This story repeated with related impact in our different rendering and encoding benchmarks used to guage multi-core efficiency. When such minimal positive aspects, Ryzen 9000 lags behind Intel’s 14th-gen processors. Choosing a 14700K is a whopping 72 p.c efficiency enhance in Cinebench over the 9700X, whereas a 14600K is an nearly 60 p.c increase in comparison with the 9600X. For anybody who wants sturdy multi-core efficiency (whether or not for intensive work like rendering or simply closely threaded video games), Intel can appear like your higher wager—offered you’re snug with the current considerations round 14th-gen chip efficiency and longevity.

However staunch Group Pink followers shouldn’t despair simply but—as a result of this isn’t the complete story round multi-core efficiency..

Motherboard settings matter

Two settings in your motherboard UEFI (typically nonetheless colloquially known as the BIOS) can enormously affect how effectively Ryzen 9000 performs: Precision Enhance Overdrive (PBO) and RAM voltage.

Of the 2, PBO performs a higher function in whether or not you’ll see merely meh positive aspects, or if you happen to’ll get nearer to what AMD guarantees. When enabled, it dynamically feeds extra voltage to the processor for clock pace will increase—which offer higher efficiency.

Not all motherboards allow PBO by default, so if you happen to purchase a Ryzen 9000 processor and wish probably the most out of it, you’ll want to enter UEFI and guarantee it’s on.

Moreover, AMD recommends working RAM at a voltage of 1.2V, fairly than 1.25V (a typical setting). Just like PBO, the latter voltage could be a default on some mobos—like on PCWorld’s personal check {hardware}, a ASRock X670E Taichi.

Altering these settings isn’t tough, however most customers are accustomed to dropping in a chip and shifting on. These essential tweaks make Ryzen 9000 really feel finickier than earlier generations, which didn’t want such exact dealing with. Nonetheless, in line with AMD, a part of the explanation for this end result is because of the decrease TDP of the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors. With a tighter ceiling on energy effectivity, the stability between efficiency and acceptable working temperature is a finer line to stroll.

AMD’s finest chip can beat Intel’s in multi-core workloads

^{For Handbrake (which evaluates pace of check completion), shorter bars are higher. For all different benchmarks, longer bars are higher.}

On the extra highly effective (and energy hungry) 9950X and 9900X, the positive aspects are a lot bigger when upgrading from their Ryzen 7000 counterparts. The 9950X, which has a 170W TDP, posts an nearly 8.5 p.c enchancment over the 7950X in Cinebench R23’s multithreaded benchmark.

Enabling PBO for 9950X additionally permits it to outperform Intel’s flagship chip—no less than in our rendering benchmarks. We noticed a 6.5 p.c lead in Cinebench R23. The distinction is much more dramatic in different rendering benchmarks, like Blender’s open supply checks. The 9950X posted a 30 p.c enhance within the suite’s Classroom check, a 27 p.c achieve within the Junkshop check, and a 23 p.c uplift within the Monster check.

Nonetheless, Intel doesn’t undergo an entire drubbing. The truth is, it retains a slight lead in different workloads, like encoding and video manufacturing. Which top-tier CPU is best for you will rely in your most typical (or worthwhile) duties.

Spectacular energy effectivity

From a chip nerd’s perspective, AMD’s capability to coax high-end efficiency out of lower-wattage CPUs is unbelievable. The facility effectivity speaks effectively of the engineering—Group Pink’s first two Ryzen 9000 CPUs have a default TDP of 65W, or almost half of Intel’s base TDP of 125W for the 14700K and 14600K.

In different phrases, AMD’s processors are posting single-core efficiency pretty much as good as Intel’s utilizing far much less juice. The weaker multicore efficiency is much less to do with an inherent weak point with the silicon design, and extra to do with how laborious AMD’s keen to gun the engine for the 9700X and 9600X. We’ve already seen in current CPU generations that a lot of their gigantic efficiency leaps should do with quantity of electrical energy run via the chips. In order hinted by the state of affairs with motherboard PBO settings, that’s the distinction we’re seeing right here.

Stagnant gaming efficiency gen-on-gen

CD Challenge Pink

Nonetheless, the body charges you get are the body charges you get—and if you happen to’re a gamer who’s been ready to improve, you’ll wish to really feel that your cash is being invested in a strong bump up.

Reality of the matter is, Ryzen 9000’s gaming efficiency doesn’t transfer the needle a lot previous Ryzen 7000—and in some instances, seems to go backward. You’ll see it most in difficult video games, as evidenced by our Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark outcomes. The small dip within the numbers gen-on-gen can principally be attributed to that normal margin of error for testing, as talked about above, however the 9950X truly drops by as a lot as 4 p.c.

Even in video games extra delicate to CPU enhancements, the positive aspects are modest, topping out at about 7 p.c in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Siege Six and F1 2023. For Complete Struggle: Warhammer III, the most important uplift among the many chips is even smaller, coming in at simply over 4 p.c.

Decrease costs than Ryzen 7000

Willis Lai / Foundry

To AMD’s credit score, the corporate is asking for much less cash this time round—so for these watching their budgets like a hawk, a minimal increase in gaming efficiency might not matter as a lot.

All the lineup sees a discount, with the Ryzen 9 processors dropping by $50 in comparison with final gen, the Ryzen 7 9700X taking place by $40, and the Ryzen 5 9600X shaving $20 off the asking worth. (AMD hasn’t confirmed Ryzen 9 costs but however Finest Purchase leaked them.)

Ryzen 9 9950X – $649
Ryzen 9 9900X – $499
Ryzen 7 9700X – $359
Ryzen 5 9600X – $279

Whereas these costs don’t return to AMD’s extremely reasonably priced MSRPs from earlier generations (like Ryzen 3000), they undoubtedly undercut the competitors. At present, Intel’s rival chips have avenue costs of roughly $550 for the 14900K, $380 for the 14700K, and $300 for the 14600K. If you’d like further multicore efficiency, you’ll should pay for it.